Premium
Ecological indicators for coral reef fisheries management
Author(s) -
Nash Kirsty L,
Graham Nicholas A J
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
fish and fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.747
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1467-2979
pISSN - 1467-2960
DOI - 10.1111/faf.12157
Subject(s) - coral reef , overfishing , fishery , reef , fishing , coral reef protection , aquaculture of coral , fisheries management , coral reef organizations , resilience of coral reefs , ecosystem based management , ecosystem , ecology , biology
Coral reef fisheries are of great importance both economically and for food security, but many reefs are showing evidence of overfishing, with significant ecosystem‐level consequences for reef condition. In response, ecological indicators have been developed to assess the state of reef fisheries and their broader ecosystem‐level impacts. To date, use of fisheries indicators for coral reefs has been rather piecemeal, with no overarching understanding of their performance with respect to highlighting fishing effects. Here, we provide a review of multispecies fishery‐independent indicators used to evaluate fishing impacts on coral reefs. We investigate the consistency with which indicators highlight fishing effects on coral reefs. We then address questions of statistical power and uncertainty, type of fishing gradient, scale of analysis, the influence of other variables and the need for more work to set reference points for empirical, fisheries‐independent indicators on coral reefs. Our review provides knowledge that will help underpin the assessment of the ecological effects of fishing, offering essential support for the development and implementation of coral reef fisheries management plans.